8 June 1810

Influence

Ch.2. King’s influence sinister

§.1. Sinister interest

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Were there time there never could have existed any useful […?]

To the […?] far from being a […?] this state of things is an excuse

In the falsity of it lies the motive for giving it a home

§.8. King’s separate and sinister interest - its reality

I have not interest - I can not have any interest - separate from that of my people.

In what a multitude of speeches from the throne has not {this} proposition /an assurance/, in effect and prospect or even in times as above been repeated.

Nothing can be more oratorical /rhetorical/ - few things perhaps more conciliatory - but none more /yet scarce any indisputable not to say/ palpably false.

If the King had not any such separate interest, despotism would be the only good form of government: our own would be a miserably bad one: every limitation to the regal authority would be a nuisance.

An interest the King no doubt has which is common to him with that of the whole people: and the greater is the mass of the elements of falsity that are heaped /thrown/ together into his bushel, the greater is the share he possesses in that common interest.

But besides this common interest he possesses in severalty a vast mass of interest which being separate from that of the people is opposite to it and being opposite to it may of any interest […?] […?] be with propriety termed a sinister interest.

His separate and sinister interest is composed of every thing good that he has not - and of every thing good which, inasmuch his having it being the cause of evil to the people, he ought not to have.